A Summary of major Construction Projects

The vast majority of the work to improve railway lines, which impacts on the frequency and journey times info as per the journey guides, is completed over one Sat/Sun period.
So if you can't find a usual route or a train departure online, it can be worth having a look at the links to the national construction work, which you will find below.
You may then have to translate what you'll find, but it can be worth the effort to discover what's occurring and to glean whether you'll need to take a bus for part of the journey, or whether trains are being diverted.
Alterations to the usual service are often not particularly obvious when looking up the journey on a ticket booking service.

The information included below is a guide to the the more extensive construction projects which are impacting on train services for a week or more.
Therefore these are the projects which are good to be aware of if you're planning a rail pass itinerary and want to avoid any hassle, or are wondering why a typical connection isn't available on multiple dates.

Also worth knowing is that many major construction work projects, which require timetable alterations, aren't confirmed until around two months ahead.

These are the upcoming rail construction projects which;

• last more than a weekend, so also impact on Monday to Friday travel
• affect long-distance express trains
• result in trains being diverted, with longer journey times (which impacts on connections)
• Or, are being substituted by buses for part of the journey.

1: The Tauern Railway

A key rail route in Austria, the Tauern Railway, is to be closed for more than six months, for construction work until July 27th.
The Tauern Railway is the main railway route in south-west Austria, as it links Salzburg with Villach and Klagenfurt, but until March 2nd the plan is for express buses to replace trains between Bischofshofen and Spittal-Millstätter.
Though trains will be able to travel beyond Bischofshofen to provide a direct service between Salzburg and the other key destination along the route, which is Bad Gastein.

So until June 27th there will be no trains operating between Bad Gastein and Spittal-Millstätter.
The long distance services which typically travel the length of the Tauern Railway are on these two routes.

1. Frankfurt (Main) - Stuttgart - München Hbf - Salzburg ↔ Bischofshofen - Bad Gastein - Spittal-Millstätter - Villach - Klagenfurt
2. Wien Hbf - St Polten - Linz - Salzburg ↔ Bischofshofen - Bad Gastein - Spittal-Millstätter - Villach - Klagenfurt
   A key function of these trains to/from Wien Hbf is to provide a direct link between both Wien and Linz with Bad Gastein, but during the work these trains will be turned around in Salzburg.

There will be EC trains operating a Frankfurt (Main) - Stuttgart - München Hbf - Salzburg ↔ Bischofshofen - Bad Gastein service, but until June 27th there will be no direct trains between Salzburg and the resort towns on the Worthersee between Villach and Klagenfurt.
The trains taking the Wien - Leoben ↔ Klagenfurt - Villach route are unaffected and it looks as though more of them will have their journeys extended beyond Villach to/from Spittal-Millstätter.

What will be impacted by the work on the Tauern Railway are the daytime rail journeys which link Germany, Salzburg and other destinations in western Austria with Slovenia and Croatia.
The trains on the Frankfurt (Main) - Stuttgart - München Hbf - Salzburg ↔ Bischofshofen - Bad Gastein - Spittal-Millstätter - Villach - Klagenfurt route typically connect at Villach with trains taking a Villach ↔ Lesce-Beld - Ljubljana - Zidane Most - Zagreb - Vinkovici route.

2: Vienna / Wien ↔ Salzburg

Due to construction work, long-distance trains will run with modified travel times between Vienna Hbf and Salzburg Hbf from May 12, 2025 to June 5, 2025.
The night trains and long-distance trains will be diverted between Vienna Hbf and St. Pölten Hbf .
Some long-distance trains cannot run and connections cannot be guaranteed.
Due to the construction work, there may be some restrictions when booking seat reservations.

From Friday evening, May 9th at 8:30 PM until Sunday, May 11th, buses replace trains between Odense and Fredericia.

1: Until July 6th Amiens is the focus of construction work.
Fewer trains than the usual timetable will be operating between Amiens and Paris, Lille and Rouen,

2: Until June 13th work is being undertaken to electrify the Abbeville <> Boulogne <> Calais route which is taken by the TER trains which travel between Paris and both Boulogne and Calais.
Some trains are cancelled and replaced by buses, or with alternative routes which are up to two hours longer.
A small number of scheduled departures per day are operating to the usual timetable.

3: Until June 6th the Clermont Ferrand <> Nimes service is replaced by buses between Langeac and Langogne; and the Clermont Ferrand <> Le Puy service is replaced by buses between Langeac and Le Puy.

1: Koln / Cologne - Bonn - Koblenz
Until June 5th, 2025 (11:59pm)
Long-distance trains between Koblenz and Cologne will be diverted to the right bank of the Rhine with travel times extended by up to 15 minutes.
Affected long-distance routes:

• (Hamburg) - Dortmund - Koln - Koblenz - Mainz - Karlsruhe - Freiburg - Basel - Zurich / Interlaken by EC train
• Hamburg) - Dortmund - Koln - Koblenz - Mainz - Frankfurt Flughafen - Heidleburg - Stuttgart / Karlsruhe by ICE train
• Hamburg) - Dortmund - Koln - Koblenz - Mainz - Frankfurt Flughafen - Frankfurt (Main) - Nurnberg - (Passau) - Linz - Wien / Vienna - by ICE train
• Berlin - Hannover - Hamm - Koln - Bonn by ICE Sprinter
  Until June 5th these services and other long-distance trains will not be calling in Bonn Hbf, Andermatt and Remagen
  Trains will be stopping in Bonn-Buel instead of Bonn Hbf - and most of the diverted trains will be using Koln Messe-Deutz station instead of Koln HBF.

2: Hannover ↔ Koln / Cologne
A bridge is being worked on Herford and as a consequence:

• Until June 6th some of the ICE trains on the Hannover ↔ Koln / Cologne route won't be calling in Bielefeld and Hamm.
• From June 7th to August 8th no ICE trains on these routes will be calling in Bielefeld and Hamm; And the additional trains Aachen / Cologne-Dortmund-Bielefeld-Hanover-Berlin will be cancelled.

3: Berlin ↔ Rostock ↔ Warnemünde
Work on the main route between Berlin and the north is having the following impact.
From April 5th to November 29th: All trains between Berlin and Warnemünde will only operate from/to Rostock Central Station, alternative local transport service will be provide between Rostock and Warnemünde.

4 Mannheim ↔ Stuttgart
From April 17 to June 6
Due to the renovation of Freudenstein Tunnel the high-speed line between Mannheim and Stuttgart will be closed between these dates.
As a consequence:

• the ICE service on the Mannheim - Stuttgart - Munich route will be reduced to 1 x train per hour.
• these hourly trains will be diverted on to a longer route between Mannheim and Stuttgart with journey times being extended by around 40 minutes.
• According to the OBB website, the EC trains between Germany and Salzburg which typically travel between Frankfurt and Munich, will be turning around in Munich and won't be calling at any station north of Munich

5: Hamburg ↔ Berlin
Aug 1st 2025 to April 30th 2026
Due to the renovation of the Hamburg - Berlin route, there will be maximum of 1 x express (ICE) train per hour between the two cities and journey times will be extended by around 45 minutes.

1: The Heart of Wales route:

From 06 May 2025 to 23 May 2025 buses will replace trains between Carmarthen / Swansea and Llandrindod.

2: Bristol/ Swindon ↔ South Wales

From 09 Jun 2025 to 20 Jun 2025 the Seven Railway Tunnel is closed for renewal.

Impact on GWR services:

• Carmarthen / Swansea ↔ London services will divert between Newport and Swindon via Gloucester, and will not call at Bristol Parkway. And will have extended journey times
• Cardiff ↔ Portsmouth will be diverted to run between Bristol Parkway and Portsmouth Harbour - they will still call at Bristol Temple Meads . An alternative train service will run between Cardiff Central and Bristol Parkway via Gloucester to connect to trains between Bristol Parkway and Portsmouth Harbour.
• Cardiff ↔ Taunton / Exeter (and beyond) services will be turned around at Bristol Temple Meads; and won't be serving Newport and Cardiff

These are the upcoming major works on the railway lines, that will be impacting on international railway routes over sustained periods of time.

Due to construction work Tauern Valley route in southern Austria, the night trains on these routes are to be suspended from November 17, 2024 to July 13, 2025.

• Stuttgart - München - Salzburg ↔ Udine - Venice
• München ↔ Verona - Milano Rogoredo - Genova - La Spezia
• München ↔ Firenze - Roma

From June 27 to August 24, 2025 buses replace trains between Arnhem in The Netherlands and Emmerich in Germany.
The ICE trains on the Amsterdam ↔ Frankfurt (Main) route will be diverted and won't be calling in Dusseldorf, Duisburg and Arnhem, but will instead be calling at Monchengladbach and Venlo.
The travel time between Germany and Amsterdam will be 30mins longer than usual.

Then Tuesday, April 22nd to Friday evening, May 9th, EuroCity will run between Copenhagen Central Station and Hamburg Hbf according to changed times between Copenhagen Central Station and Kolding.
EuroCity to Hamburg Hbf previously runs from Copenhagen H, Ringsted and Odense, but runs at normal times from Kolding.

EuroCity from Copenhagen:

• Copenhagen Central departure approximately 35 minutes before
• Ringsted departure approximately 35 minutes before
• Odense departure approximately 20 minutes before

EuroCity from Hamburg:

• Odense arrival approximately 20 minutes later
• Ringsted arrival approximately 35 minutes later
• Copenhagen Central arrival approx. 40 minutes late

Regional trains between Wien / Vienna and Bratislava usually depart hourly in two different routes:

• to Bratislava hl.st, the city's main railway station, via Marchegg, which is route REX8
• to Bratislava Petrzalka station, which is located on the south bank of the River Danube, which is route, REX6

However, until July 5th, due to construction work by the Slovak Railways (ZSR), trains on line REX8 can't be used between Marchegg station and Bratislava hl.st - A rail replacement service with buses will be set up for some trains between Marchegg and Bratislava.
During this time journeys between Vienna and Bratislava will mainly only be possible by using route REX6 - Though the Railjet train on the Zurich ↔ Bratislava route will be calling at both Bratislava hl.st and Bratislava Petrzalka.

From May 16th to May 26th due to construction work, some long-distance trains cannot run between Linz/Donau Hbf and Summerau with a replacement rail service which presumably will require additional connections - and will impact on the availability of booking seat reservations.

From April 17 to June 6 the EC trains between Germany and Austria via Salzburg will be turning around in Munich and won't be serving any station north of Munich.

April 25 (9 p.m.) to May 9, 2025 (9 p.m.)
All Paris ↔ Frankfurt services will take the route via Strasbourg and Karlsruhe, with calls in both cities, so the stops at Forbach, Saarbrücken Hbf and Kaiserslautern Hbf won't be available.